For the most part, Tesla’s Gigafactory has looked the same from the outside since the beginning of the year. The first phase consists of 4 sections of about 475,000 square feet for a total of 1.9 million square feet. The final version of the building, which should be completed by the end of the decade, is expected to have 13 million square feet of manufacturing and work space. It should be enough to become the biggest building on earth by footprint and Tesla plans for the factory to produce at least as much battery capacity as the entire world production of li-ion cells.

Now we learn that Tesla is planning to add a new section to the plant with an estimated completion date by the end of the year, according a building permit recently issued to Tesla.

The new building permit is for the expansion of the area ‘D’ into the area ‘E’ and it is valued at $63 million – making it the job with the biggest valuation of any project related to the Gigafactory to date.

The picture above is a bird-eye view of the plant with the new section going on the south end of the building (right on the picture). Each section has its own foundation which makes the whole building more resistant to earthquakes and other natural disasters.

The job with the second highest valuation, $51 million, is for the installation of ‘battery cell manufacturing equipement’, which is expected to be completed by July 20th, according to the building permit.

While the Gigafactory has been producing battery packs since last year, the real achievement is expected to be the start of battery cell manufacturing, which should lower the cost and introduce a new 20700 cell format to Tesla’s lineup.

As of now, Tesla and its strategic partner at the Gigafactory have been saying that battery cell manufacturing will start “by the end of the year”. We contacted Tesla to know if the estimated date of completion for the battery cell manufacturing equipment could indicate that it will be ready by the Grand Opening event or maybe before the fourth quarter – we will update if we get an official answer.

He also recently referred to Panasonic’s manufacturing equipment at the factory as the most impressive machines there, but he also said that Tesla was not able to show them during the factory tour. Maybe they could make an exception for the Gigafactory opening event?